Send us Fan Mail Mary Anne Popescu is the Executive Director of the Ontario Association for Family Mediation and a practicing family mediator of over two decades. In this encore episode, she introduces the concept that changed both her practice and her own marriage: the attack-defend loop, and how naming it in real time can stop a conversation from spiraling. She and Alex and Amanda dig into insight mediation, why she prefers the phrase "families experiencing high conflict behavior" over the ...

Send us Fan Mail Most people think the first step after deciding to divorce is calling a lawyer. It isn't — and starting there can cost you time, money, and options you didn't know you had. In this encore episode, Alex and Amanda break down the entire divorce process from the beginning: why taking a beat before making any decisions matters, how to gather information and build the right team, the five different processes available (kitchen table agreements, mediation, collaborative law, lawyer...

Send us Fan Mail Your attachment style shapes everything — how you fight, how you grieve, how you date after divorce, and how you co-parent with someone you're no longer in love with. And most people have no idea what theirs is until something breaks. In this encore episode, Alex and Amanda dig into the four attachment styles with a therapist and attachment expert — anxious, avoidant, disorganized, and secure — and explore how each one shows up in the specific context of divorce and post-divo...

Send us Fan Mail In this encore episode, Michelle joins Alex and Amanda to talk about what dating actually looks like as a single mom in New York, the impossible time math of fitting dating into a life that already includes a daughter and a comedy career, why she gave up hiding who she was for men a long time ago, and what three things automatically make someone a red flag. Funny, honest, and deeply relatable. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by our podcast guest are their own and...

Send us Fan Mail Jessica Frew's first marriage looked like a great fit from the outside. Then she found something on their computer. Her husband Steve was gay — and couldn't yet admit it to himself. In this encore episode, Jessica shares the seven years of gradual mourning that followed, the affair that finally ended the marriage, and how she and Steve built a co-parenting relationship so intentional that they now host a podcast together alongside her current husband Matt. She also talks abou...

Send us Fan Mail Betsy Pake is a master coach, speaker, and founder of the Navigate Method. She has also lived this question herself for nearly a decade before finally getting clear. In this episode she talks about what keeps women stuck, why taking accountability for where you are is actually empowering rather than letting anyone off the hook, how to calibrate for action rather than words when you're trying to figure out if someone is really willing to change, and the difference between sett...

Send us Fan Mail Emotional intelligence isn't something you either have or you don't. It's a skill. And it might be the most important one you can build when you're navigating divorce, co-parenting, and figuring out who you are on the other side of a relationship. Kristen Harcourt — business coach, speaker, podcast host, and emotional intelligence expert — joins Alex and Amanda to talk about what EQ actually looks like in practice: how to regulate your emotions in real time during a difficult...

Send us Fan Mail The engagement ring meant everything when he gave it to you. Now it's sitting in a drawer and you're not sure what to do with it. Sell it? Save it for your kids? Or turn it into something that finally feels like yours? Jessica of Jessica Jewellry joins Alex and Amanda to walk through every stage of the post-divorce jewelry journey, from the woman who calls fresh out of a split wanting it gone immediately, to the one a decade later who's ready to redesign it into something tha...

Send us Fan Mail After the most difficult experience of his life, Chris Coulter spent a decade speaking with more than 2,000 parents who were struggling to understand what was really going on with their teenagers. What he found was a consistent gap — parents dismissing warning signs as normal adolescent behavior, and teenagers who wouldn't open up to the people who loved them most. In this episode Chris talks about his daughter Maddie, what he learned in the years that followed her passing, a...

Send us Fan Mail She spent 27 years married to her abuser. She was a domestic abuse counselor the entire time. And she still didn't recognize what was happening to her until year 20 of her marriage. Dr. Christine Cocchiola — licensed social worker, professor, therapist, survivor, and protective mom — joins Alex and Amanda to talk about coercive control as the foundation of all abuse, not just the violent incidents we're taught to look for. She explains the dark tetrad of personality traits th...